


Redemption

by Wizzy



Category: Corpse Party (Video Game)
Genre: Amnesia, Ghosts, Redemption, Split Souls, revival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 04:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 20,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4905355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wizzy/pseuds/Wizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sayuri has no memory of who she is. All she can remember is the boy who was her best friend. Suddenly, no one remembers him. What could possibly have happened? With the help of a most unexpected ally, she sets out to make everything right again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Why Only Me?

“You're really good at this.”

        “I learn quickly,” I lied. Had he had any idea that the real reason I knew what I was doing was because I'd had quite a bit of experience, we probably wouldn't be here right now.

        I wasn't really a whore, but I wasn't exactly hard to get with either. Of course, the only ones who knew that were the ones I'd been with. Each of those times had been a one-time thing with a guy and none of them knew about any of the others. I'd never done anything with the same guy more than one time, except for one.

        He'd been a good friend of mine who'd been pretty crazy about a girl that he didn't think he had any chance with. He was ok with that, because he'd had me to keep him company, and no one had to know anything about it.

        This time, however, was different. I had feelings for Yoshiki.

        Now here we were, finally I was getting what I wanted.

        The fun didn't last long. Nearby the door opened and we both froze as Ayumi walked in. I'd known Yoshiki had feelings for her, but he was convinced she was interested in Satoshi. Personally, I had no clue why anyone would be, but apparently I'm not much of an expert on the whole “love and relationships” things.

        She had a horrified look on her face and without a word, turned and ran out the down and down the hallway. Normally, I wouldn't have cared, but Yoshiki took off after her, leaving me alone in the empty room.

        For the first time in weeks, I allowed myself to think of my lost friend. Sakutaro Morishige. He'd disappeared of the face of the earth one day and no one seemed to remember him at all. It made no sense at all. Had he just been a dream? No, he couldn't have. He was the only memory I'd really had. He just had to be real, right?

        “I wish you were here Sakutaro,” I whispered into the nothingness. “I'm so lost without you.”

        When I'd met him, I'd had no memory, no family, nothing. I had been laying unconscious on the ground and he'd tripped over me. When he'd managed to wake me, I had no idea where I was. The only thing I could remember was my first name.

        From that day on, we'd been the closest of friends. He'd even been the first boy I'd ever kissed. I'd never really had any romantic feelings for him, but that was fine for both of us. It gave us both a release for our stress. He even had feelings for someone else, a girl I couldn't even remember now.

        “How can you remember him? You're not supposed to,” said a voice from beside me.

        “He was the only memory I have,” I said, turning to see a young girl standing before me. She looked just like a much younger me, though I guess that's probably just a coincidence. “Before I knew him, I had no memory at all.”

        “You... really care about him, don't you?” she asked, a bit of a sadness in her voice.

        “Why can't anyone else remember?”

        “Satoshi and Yuka Mochida, Naomi Nakashima, Ayumi Shinozaki, Yoshiki Kishinuma, Seiko Shinohara, Mayu Suzumoto, Yui Shishido and Sakutaro Morishige,” she said calmly. While I couldn't remember some of them, I could feel a stirring in my mind, like it was there but I couldn't quite reach it. “They performed a special charm and were transported to Heavenly Host Elementary. Those that died are the ones you cannot remember. Those who survived retain their memory, though part of them longs to forget the things they saw there.”

        “There... there isn't any way to bring them back?” I asked, though I already had a pretty good idea what she'd say.

        She started to say no, but then stopped. The look on her face told me that she hadn't even thought of it. “There may be a way...” she said, more to herself then to me. “I wonder....”

        “Whatever I can do to bring them back, I'll do it!” I begged.

        “Even if you had to give your own life, would you still do it?”

        I hesitated before I realized that even if it came down to that, it wouldn't stop me. “Yes. I'd bring every one of them back if they wished it. Even if...” There was no need to say the rest, the girl already knew.

        “In Heavenly Host,” she began as if she were attempting to talk me out of it, “when you die, you will feel the pain of your death for all eternity. If truly wish to save them, you will have to go there yourself and feel the pain of their deaths. You will still risk everything for them? Even for those whose names you've never known?”

        That last part caught my attention more than the rest. Names I'd never known? Did that mean there were others who had been trapped inside that place like Sakutaro and his friends? “There are others besides the ones who were once here at Kisaragi?” I'd only been thinking out loud, but the girl took it as a sign that I was going to change my mind.

        “I see. Only your friends mean anything to you,” she said, almost taunting me.

        “I'll do it,” I stated definitively. “Anything it takes, I'll do it. I'll save every one of them if there's a way.”

        “You truly mean that?”

        “If I can save even just one of them, I could die in peace.”

        “So, you'll go to Heavenly Host right now and bring back the countless people who've suffered and died there?”

        “Yes.” It was just one little word, but I felt so powerful as I said it.

        “Then I will help you,” she said, finally smiling as she walked up towards me. As she moved closer, her true form was revealed. Really, it was just the same except she was transparent and blue. She was a ghost. “Together we will undo what damage I've done to those innocent souls.”

        “Who are you?” I questioned, just now realizing she'd never said her name.

        “Sayuri Hoshikawa,” she said, revealing to me my full name, “my name is Sachiko Shinozaki.”


	2. Did I Know You?

It was strange being inside of Heavenly Host. Supposedly it had been torn down years ago, but here it was.

Even more strange was the girl named Sachiko and her plan to set things right.

“Ok, so explain one more time.”

“In order to bring them back I have to join my spirit with yours,” she repeated for the fifth time. It still made little sense to me, but if it brought back Sakutaro, it was worth a shot. “To even have a hope of succeeding, the other spirit much have a pure heart, and you passed that test.”

“Ok... I still don't get it.”

She just sighed. “Let's just get started, ok?” Her hand reached out towards me and went through my chest. Surprisingly, there wasn't any sort of wound, but then again she was a ghost. From there, the rest of her ghostly body absorbed into my own.

“What the hell was THAT?”

 _Calm down,_ Sachiko's voice said inside my mind, startling me.  _I'll guide you through it. Even if I don't speak, I will guide your hands to their task._

So now my fate was in the hands of a ghost I barely knew. There had to be more to this than what Sachiko was telling me.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked innocently. “I don't get it. You didn't kill them... did you?”

_Before my soul can truly rest, I must redeem myself. Their lives were stolen from them because of my own corruption, now I must set it right._

My body them began walking on its own. “Hey! I can handle the walking!” I complained, second guessing my decision to let her control me.

When she finally let me regain control of myself, I was kneeling next to a skeleton. “What am I-” Sachiko answered by making me place my hand over where it's heart would have been.

As soon as I touched the bone, everything changed. I was walking around searching for Chiyo and out of nowhere, I was hit over the head with a hammer. Suddenly I was back with the skeleton, only it wasn't a skeleton anymore. In front of me was a girl about my age, in a uniform I didn't recognize.

In the blink of an eye, she was gone. Vanished. I turned hoping to see Sachiko standing there, but there was nothing. She had possessed my body, so seeing her wasn't possible.

_She is back in her own time and place. The memory of this place will linger in her mind, though she will think it only a dream._

“You realize how insane that sounds, right?”

_As insane as you talking to yourself?_

“Hey, I did not ask you to poke around inside my head,” I said, trying to think of some sort of comeback, though there wasn't much that could be said. She was right, after all. “What now?”

 _We do this for every body we find,_ Sachiko's voice instructed.  _What you saw were the last few minutes before her death. Hers was quick, but the others will be much longer and painful. The more you go through, the more of a toll it will take on you._

“So in the end... it will probably kill me?” Sure, the thought was scary but I couldn't just abandon everyone to suffer here. At the very least I could set their spirits free.

_I told you that already. Surely you're not backing out, are you?_

“No way!”

_Good. I wasn't going to let you quit anyway._

“Let's do this.”

 

Time seemed to stand still, but then again, I was repeating the same thing over and over. Stuck in a seemingly endless loop. One by one, I watched the deaths and memories of countless students who'd been trapped in this god-awful place.

Despite having seen countless people, none of faces were even slightly familiar. Bit by bit, I could feel fragments of myself slipping away. Whether it was because of the deaths I experienced with the victims' memories or because of Heavenly Host itself, I had no clue. It was more than likely a combination of both.

At this point, it had started taking a physical toll on me. But despite how much I may have needed it, I couldn't stop. I had to see someone, someone I knew.

The next body I came across seemed to be fairly newer, as if he hadn't died much more than a couple months at most. His uniform was tattered, yet there was something oddly familiar about it. Something about it said “You know me!” But as much as I tried, I couldn't remember.

 _Kensuke Kurosaki. Byakudan Senior High School_ ,his ID said.

“Did I know you?” I asked the lifeless body, which was probably as insane as talking to Sachiko. At this point, it didn't really matter.

His death was probably one of the hardest to watch. Stabbed by your best friend, pushed down a hole, and then left to die slowly, that's the worst death I could ever imagine. But, I really only had one friend to begin with. No, not quite. There was the girl he loved. She had been my friend, but who was she?

Snapping myself out of my thoughts, I realized the boy was still laying there in front of me. Did it not work? No, he was breathing, so that couldn't be it. Did I do something wrong?

 _You wanted to know, didn't you?_ Sachiko's voice laughed. She must have picked up on my confusion.  _When he wakes, you will have your answer_.

“What a messed up dream...” a boy's voice mumbled. At first I was startled, but when I realized it was just the boy on the ground next to me. As I turned towards him, he started to sit up.

“You shouldn't move yet,” I said, trying to sound as calm and soothing as I could. However, it seemed to have the opposite effect.

He was a bit startled, ended up sitting up too quickly and tried to move himself back away from me.

“I'm sorry!” Crawling over to him, I tried to convince him that I meant no harm. When he'd calmed down, he grabbed a hold of his hand with the other. Seeing him wince, I reached for it and he started to pull away again. “Let me look. Maybe I can help.” I offered, gentle turning his hand over.

It was nothing serious. Just a splinter. A very large one right in the soft part of the palm where it connects to the thumb. No big deal, but still painful.

“I'll get it out for you. This is gonna hurt a bit.” Further investigation showed that it was in a little too deep to get a hold of. “Or maybe a lot.” Had there been any tools or anything around, this could have been easy. But no, all I had was my two hands.

Using my thumbnail, I pushed on the end that was buried, forcing it back out the way it went in. As soon as it was poking out just enough to get a grip on it, I stopped pushing and pulled it free. It quickly started to bleed, so I covered it with my sleeve to slow it a bit until it would stop on its own.

“Thanks. Uh... what's your name?”

“Sayuri,” I said, forgetting my last name for a moment. “Sayuri Hoshikawa.”

“Huh, that was the name of a girl I knew years ago,” he thought out loud. “Oh, I'm-”

“I know. I read your ID tag.” Thinking about it, I probably shouldn't have said that. This place was creepy enough without my weirdness as it was. “Sorry, I shouldn't have done that... I just... I thought maybe if I saw your name it'd help me remember something... I didn't think I'd get to talk to you, so...” I stopped myself before saying anymore; I'd been rambling on and Sakutaro had always told me I shouldn't do that.

“Remember what exactly?”

“Anything really.” He gave me a confused look and I realized I'd have to explain. “Two years ago, I was found with no memory of anything but my first name. No one knew me and nothing could trigger any of my memories. Your uniform... it looked kinda familiar, so I thought...”

“You thought that maybe you knew me?” He suggested and I simply nodded. “No memories, huh? Could be nice at times.”

“I guess. Um, Kurosaki, right? Is it just me, or does it feel like this has happened before?”

“Huh. You're right,” he said calmly.

“I-”

 _We don't have time for this,_  Sachiko's voice warned me. I'd actually forgotten all about why I'd come here.  _The longer you stay in one place the more likely it is that you could be attacked. You're not invincible. If you die here, you and everyone left here will be trapped forever._

“Ok, ok. I get it.”

“What?” He couldn't hear Sachiko, so what I'd just said made no sense to him whatsoever.

“Sorry, I... I need to get going. When I get out of here, I'd like to talk with you some more. Maybe then I'll....” I trailed off, not needing to really finish that sentence.

“If we both get out of here alive, we'll meet up,” he promised as I stood and began walking away.

“ _When,_ ” I corrected. “Just remember Kisaragi Academy, alright? If you go there, you'll find me. I promise.” When I looked back, he was gone. Had he heard? I guess I'd just have to find out later.

 _There's still much to do,_ Sachiko reminded me.  _We must move quickly or this will all be for nothing._

“I won't fail.”


	3. I Have To Find Him

So many bodies, far too many. So many lives taken away too early. How could I possibly get to them all? Would I be able to get to the ones I'd been so desperate to find?

I had to actively force myself to stop thinking like that, but when you're surrounded by nothing but death, how can it not effect your mind?

As I turned a corner, I let out a small scream. When I'd come here, I'd expected dead bodies, but nothing like this. Some poor soul splattered against the wall, like a rotten tomato smashed against a board. You couldn't even tell what part of them was what anymore.

“What could possibly have done this?”

_The ghost children who roam these halls will kill anyone in whichever cruel way they feel like doing. The very same could happen to you if they should find you._

“No one should ever have to suffer like that.” Sachiko guided my hand and soon the victim's last moments played inside of my mind. She had been thrown against the wall at a speed that could only have been possible through the ghost children. One of the ghosts was a girl who was missing her left eye, the other was what I assumed was a girl with most of her head gone.

But, of all of it, the one thing that got to me was what the girl had called out in her last moments. It may have only been in her mind, but it didn't matter.

She'd been calling out to the one she cared about most. Shig. That was Mayu's nickname for Sakutaro. I'd always suspected she loved him, now I knew. Even without her ID, I knew it had to be her.

I couldn't help myself, I started crying. To be honest, I didn't really know why. Maybe it just touched a part of me I didn't even know was really there anymore.

As the memory faded, I impulsively hugged her unconscious body. “I'll find him for you no matter what it takes,” I promised her, though I was sure she couldn't hear me. That didn't matter though. A promise is a promise. Before I knew it, she was gone.

“I promise,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. This promise must be kept, no matter what it takes. Even if it took my own life to do it, they had to be brought back together.

As I started walking away, I could have sworn I'd heard her voice in my mind. Though it was probably just my imagination. _Thank you._

 

No familiar faces were found for quite awhile after I'd found Mayu. Thankfully, none of the bodies had suffered deaths as brutal and demented as hers. Sure, some stood out a bit more than others, but nothing near what happened to her.

A few, I noticed, were killed by the same person. A real, sane, person. Well, maybe not so sane, but he wasn't insane from this place. He was mysterious and the name was never encountered within the memory. Had I been able to search the victim's memories at will, I'm sure I could have found out. Though, had he been alive in here still, I'd at least know to be wary of him.

It wasn't long until I'd encountered him. Fortunately for me, he was dead. Sure, it meant more work for me, but it also meant I didn't have to worry about him trying to kill me.

 _Yuuya Kizami_. I found his name in his head while his last few memories played out. For being a sociopath, he did have a nice name.

He'd been struck from behind with a hammer, but that wasn't the worst of it. Just before, he'd been chasing someone. He'd kept calling after her, saying her name and shouting something about her big brother. Yuka. I knew that name, but how do I know it? I couldn't remember where I'd heard it before.

It didn't matter now anyway. Something about him made me feel uneasy. Would he only repeat the things he'd done the first time? Or would he realize just what he'd done and change everything? I wasn't sure that I really wanted to know.

I didn't relax until he was gone. Something was definitely off about him, and it set me on edge.

 

After a few more bodies, I finally ran into what Sachiko had warned me about.

A sudden noise behind me had grabbed my attention. I turned quickly to find the ghost of a young boy standing just a few yards away.

 _Run,_ Sachiko's voice urged me.

I couldn't afford not to. Running meant surviving. Hesitating would surely kill me.

Fate wasn't quite on my side, however. I slid to a halt as I saw a walking corpse of a man standing before me. There was no other way I could go. The doors in this hall were either locked or they wouldn't move. I was trapped.

“No...” My heart was racing. I could feel my heartbeat pulsing in every inch of my body. There was no way out.

Then I noticed something. The man in front of me was confused. Like he was unsure what to do. But why? What was stopping him?

 _Yoshikazu follows the orders of Sachiko,_  my possessor explained.

Then it hit me. I looked like Sachiko. But then, didn't that mean Sachiko could order him away? Unless, someone else was controlling him. But how? Sachiko was currently inside of me.

_Run past him!_

It was my only chance. If I waited any longer, he might shake his confusion and attack me. There was no time to waste. I darted past him and down the stairs, not stopping until I was certain I was safe. Safe for now anyway.

“Sachiko, I think you owe me an explanation,” I said as I tried to catch my breath.

 

When Satoshi and the others were here the first time, they appeased the three ghost victims and then appeased Sachiko, allowing them to be free of Heavenly Host. But the school had a mind of its own, and therefore created a new “Sachiko.” This new Sachiko was merely another ghost turned into the controller for these closed spaces. However, to allow full control of Yoshikazu, her appearance was altered to that of the original Sachiko. He would now only follow this Sachiko.

 

After Sachiko had explained the situation with the man, she decided that there was one more thing that needed explaining.

_I think you need to know the truth. It starts back with the murder of the three child spirits that haunt this school. When I killed them, my soul became split into two. One half was completely pure and kind, the half that I lost. Behind it left every bit of darkness and hatred, and along with it, just a tiny fragment of the pure half of the soul. It was left so that should the two wish to become joined once more, the darker half could redeem itself and make up for all the things it had done._

Sachiko paused a moment to let me catch up. This was a lot to hear, and this was only half of it.

_But for either to truly rest, they had to join together. So both wandered, one restlessly wandering the earth and waiting for the other, while the dark half roamed the halls of Heavenly Host, seeking more and more victims. Eventually the pure half gave up on its mate and allowed itself to be reborn into another body, hoping one day the two could still reunite. But when the darker half became purified, the other half couldn't be found._

“So you're searching for the other half of your soul?” I asked, trying to keep up. It was hard to follow and I was starting to get confused.

 _I have found it,_  she corrected.  _But it seeks to live now, rather than rest. I've been sharing a body with it, but it resists my attempts to reconnect us._

“Wait, you're not trying to say that I'm....”

_Yes. Didn't you wonder why we look so similar? Had I grown up, I would look like you do now._

“Well, great to know I look like a murderer.”

 _That's harsh._ The voice was calm, though I knew Sachiko was a bit hurt by my words.  _Be on guard, the other Sachiko knows what we've been doing. She is angry and will find a way to stop you. We must hurry to find your friend before it is too late._

“What do you mean by 'too late'?” I was almost afraid to ask.

_If she kills you, it's over. But if she were to destroy the body of your friend, he could never be revived. Then you would suffer even if you escaped this place alive. He is what you've come so far to find, after all._

That thought never crossed my mind. No body meant no bringing him back. If he couldn't... then my promise to Mayu... it would be broken. I couldn't let that happen.

 

I searched until I'd been over every inch of this place, but there was no sign of him anywhere. I'd long since run out of bodies, but I couldn't find the one I was searching for.

“Poor little Sayuri...” A voice taunted me. It echoed through the halls, no sign of which direction it was coming from. “You must be so exhausted!” Its giggling made me angry. The voice was identical to Sachiko's, so there was no doubt in my mind that this was the other 'Sachiko' I'd been warned about. “Your friend is getting impatient with you! He's just  _dying_  for you to find him!” Her taunts were followed by psychotic laughter.

“You leave him alone!” I shouted at the voice, though I knew it was pointless.

“Maybe if you hurry you can watch him be destroyed!”

I had no clue where he was, I just knew I had to get to him. I ran as fast as I could, silently praying I could make it in time.


	4. Please Let Me Find Him!

_Please let me get there in time!_  I thought over and over as I ran.

I had no clue where I was going, but it didn't matter. All I knew was that I had to find him. Before, I'd followed where Sachiko guided me. Now I was following where my heart was telling me. I couldn't give up! If I couldn't return with him, I wouldn't return at all.

I'd gone through countless hallways and down several staircases. Why couldn't I have found him first? That would have saved so much trouble. But maybe the other 'Sachiko' had been hiding him from the beginning. She could have so easily pulled this trap on me at any time, but why now? Was she trying to force me to the breaking point? Or did she simply enjoy the level of torture this was was for me?

 _Please let me find him!_  I silently begged.

 

Suddenly I found myself in a small room. On the floor near the center was a pentagram drawn on the floor. About five feet from the wall near the edge of the gigantic drawing, was Sakutaro's body.

I rushed forward and pulled him to me. What I should have done was revive him then and there, but I was so happy to finally find him, I'd forgotten all about everything. Hugging him once more, despite the fact he was still dead, made me feel so content and safe.

A loud rumbling from the floor brought my attention back to reality. This wasn't over. The floor fell open like an enormous trapdoor. I was right at the edge, with his body hanging over a dark pit.

At the bottom of the pit were hundreds of long spikes, standing ready to impale anyone who should fall. Sakutaro would be fine if he fell since he was already dead, but I would be a goner for sure.

Almost as if she were reading my thoughts, flames sprung up around the spikes. Yeah, neither of us stood a chance if we fell.

I had a hold of him, but there was no way I could hold his weight long. My arms were wrapped around his chest just under his arms as tight as I could hold, but I still felt him slipping.

“No... No. No. No!” I couldn't hold him much longer. “No! I promised.” Tears were starting to form in my eyes. Then I had it! If I could just revive him, Sachiko could send him back out of here. He'd be out of the other 'Sachiko's' reach. But with him facing me, my hand couldn't reach his heart, the one place it had to be.

Reaching my arm far enough around to grab the other, I managed to reach my other hand to the front if him. He was slipping even more. I had to hurry.

Once again, she knew what I'd been thinking. The floor beneath me started creaking and collapsing. Suddenly, the boards beneath me gave out, hurling both of us into the pit.

But she had been too late. I was alone when I reached the bottom.

However, when I hit the ground, there was no fire, no spikes, nothing. It was just cold hard ground. Nothing felt broken, but I definitely hurt.

“I... I kept my promise... Mayu...” That was all I said before everything around me disappeared into nothingness.


	5. What's Happening To Me?

“Sayuri!”

_Is that... a voice? Am I... am I dead?_

“Hey! Wake up!”

_I know that voice, but who is it?_

“Hoshikawa!”

_That voice... I know that one too._

“Come on Sayuri!”

_Why do they keep calling me? I... I can't move._

“We made a promise, remember?”

_Promise? I kept my promise... didn't I?_

“Come back to us!”

_That's three.. no... four voices. Who are they? Why... why can't I move?_

“She's not... is she?”

“She's breathing, but just barely. She's alive.”

_Stop calling me. I... is that... Sakutaro?_

“Come on! You can do it!”

_Mayu? But who are the other two? Satoshi? That sounds like him._

“Snap out of it!”

_Yoshiki? Why would he... Oh who cares..._

“Is she gonna be ok big brother?”

“I hope so.”

_I kept my promise._

“Did she just say something?”

_I kept my promise._

“Promise?”

_I kept my promise, Mayu._

“Thank you, Sayuri.”

“Huh?”

“We made a promise. Sayuri, can you hear me?” That was Mayu's voice. My body still wouldn't move yet, but I could at least tell what voice belonged to who now. Most of them anyway.

“What are you talking about, Suzumoto?” That was a girl's voice. Ayumi's, I thought.

“It's a secret.” I could hear Mayu giggle.

_Where am I?_

“Hey, Hoshikawa, you need to wake up.” I recognized the voice, but the name escaped me.

“Hoshikawa?” Sakutaro. He didn't know I knew my last name.

“She found a memory in Heavenly Host.” The gasps all around me told me that most of them thought it was a dream, just a nightmare they wanted to forget. But no, his words confirmed that it was real.

I heard a door open and close. Footsteps sounded not far from the group, followed by a confused, but slightly familiar voice. “Where the hell am I?”

A scream came from a girl just a couple feet from me. The sudden noise jolted me awake. I sat up way too quickly and hit my head on the desk.

“Ow...” I moaned, rubbing where I'd hit my head.

“Welcome back,” Sakutaro said.

“Who screamed?” I asked, trying to stand up.

“Yuka, what's got you so scared?” That was Satoshi. That's right, Yuka was his sister. Wait, she couldn't be the same Yuka that Kizami had chased, could she?

I crawled over to where she was cowering behind Satoshi who'd been kneeling near where my feet had been. “Hey, what-” As I gently touched her her arm to comfort her, one of her memories played in my head. It was the same as Kizami's last memory. I screamed and backed away as quickly as possible.

All eyes in the room were on me. My whole body was shaking and all I could do was stare at my hands. Why had that happened? Why would Sachiko still be in here?

“No. No. No. No...” I muttered, shaking my head. “This was supposed to be over.... You're still here.... What's happening to me?”

“Hey, calm down-” Satoshi reached towards me, but I moved further away.

“Don't touch me! Please!” I begged, afraid of what could happen. “Something's wrong.... I should have went back to normal.... Unless.... Oh please no....” Had something happened to Sachiko while she was possessing me? Or even worse, could the other one have come back with me?

_Did you really think you'd get away so easily?_

“Sayuri?” Mayu's voice sounded worried.

“Just keep everyone away,” I told her before stumbling to the door. 'Sachiko' was in my head. But what about the real Sachiko? Was she now trapped in Heavenly Host?

_Fight her Sayuri! She's not fully here, just a fragment-_

_Shut up you!_

“Stop it!” I held my head, my fingers digging into my skull.

_Think Sayuri!_

_You can't escape me!_

“Stop it! Get out of my head!” I cried, unable to take much more of this.

_If the body is-_

_Shut up Sachiko!_

_Damage the body!_

_You can't do a thing!_

_Anger Kizami!_

I'd kept my eyes shut as they argued, but now I dared look around. Sure enough, Kizami had been the one who'd walked in moments ago. That explained Yuka's fears. Though it was strange that he was here. Did Sachiko know this would happen?

Everything that happened next was a blur. I remember speaking, but I had no clue what I was saying. Was it Sachiko helping me get rid of the fake one? I didn't really want to know.

All I knew was that whatever she'd made me say angered Kizami to the point of wanting to kill me. The moment the blade pierced my skin, I felt the fake Sachiko disappear. I grabbed his wrist, and attempted to play back the memories of the dead I'd seen into his mind. If it had worked, he'd be seeing the deaths of everyone he'd killed, through their eyes and feeling exactly what they did.

Once I'd let go, he back away really quickly. I looked down at the wound. Flowing from it was a thick, black liquid of some sort as well as a large amount of my blood.

It wasn't long before I felt Sachiko leaving my body. She wasn't visible like before, but I could feel it.

Without her, I instantly felt a lot weaker. My legs gave out and I fell, but someone managed to catch me just before I'd hit the ground. I'd used just about every last bit of energy I'd had in Heavenly Host. Sachiko had been the only thing keeping me moving, so now I had no strength left.

“Thank you, Sachiko, Kizami,” I mumbled just before I passed out.


	6. Her Fate Is In Your Hands

(With the others, just after Sayuri has lost consciousness.)

“Sachiko?” Kurosaki asked. The only time he'd heard Sachiko mentioned was with the charm he'd done just before waking up in that cursed school. “Who's Sachiko?” He turned to face the others as knelt on the ground, still hanging onto Sayuri's body.

“What did she say?” Mayu asked, walking over.

“She thanked Sachiko and... Kizami.” It didn't make sense. Was she trying to make Kizami attack her? And before that, she kept telling something to get out of her head. Were the two things connected? And what was it that she did to Kizami that made him suddenly get all shaky?

“That doesn't make any sense,” Satoshi said, trying to figure it all out as Kurosaki applied pressure to Sayuri's wound to slow the bleeding.

“She was acting fine earlier,” Yoshiki stated, thinking back to when he'd left earlier. “What could have happened between then and now? Something had her really scared.”

“Sayuri doesn't get scared,” Morishige said calmly. “She could watch her own death happening right in front of her without even flinching.”

“She was possessed,” a voice said. Some of the students recognized it, and some of them were afraid. It was the spirit of a little girl, a little girl who greatly resembled Sayuri. “She longed to be reunited with a friend who'd disappeared without a trace, not even caring what she'd have to go through to do it. It nearly killed her and she'd become possessed by a fragment under the control of a fake Sachiko. When she discovered this, she was scared. But... it was you she feared for. If only you knew what she'd went through for you.”

“How do we know we can even trust a single word you say?” Yoshiki shouted at her, though she stayed calm.

“If it hadn't been for my strength and the promise she'd made to Mayu, she would never have made it out.” There it was again. That promise they wouldn't tell of. Why wouldn't anyone explain anything?

“Will she be alright?”

“That is up to all of you,” Sachiko told them. “She feels content to die now; her task was completed. If you wish her to live, give her a reason to fight her way back. But keep in mind how she will feel and what may happen with either choice.”

“She planned it, didn't she?” Kizami asked, his voice shaking. He was pale and his body was trembling. It was the first time Kurosaki had ever seen him actually look like he was afraid.

“We planned it, yes,” she answered. “To free her from what little grip the other one had on her, we had to damage her body to the point it couldn't move, but that did mean risking her life. Her blood will not be on your hands; you were merely a puppet.”

“We?” Kurosaki questioned, though he had a fairly good idea of what had been meant.

“Sayuri and I are alike in many more ways than you know,” Sachiko said, not really explaining much. “Until a moment ago, I had been possessing her. She had been completely until my control when she taunted Yuuya Kizami.”

“So what she did to me... that was you?” Kizami's voice was still shaking. Whatever had happened clearly scared him. Had Sachiko been the cause, it would have made perfect sense. But Sachiko's response said otherwise.

“That was Sayuri's decision. With the last bit of her strength, she used my power on you. If you wish to know any more, she will have to tell you.”


	7. The Way Things Work Sometimes

It's funny how things work out sometimes. I'd been so prepared to die that the thought of surviving this whole thing hadn't even crossed my mind for a second. But here I was, alive and well. Ok, probably not well, but you get the point.

When I woke, I found myself in a hospital room. My body ached, but I was definitely alive.

 _Sorry Sachiko,_ I thought to myself.  _You'll have to wait a bit longer._

“You're awake,” said the voice I knew all too well.

“Hey there,” I mumbled, still too asleep to talk much louder. “What happened?”

“You were stabbed,” he said, laughing quietly.

“I meant after that,” I said, slowly trying to sit up.

“Let me help.” As he helped me up, I couldn't help but think back to when I'd first met him.

Two years. Things sure have changed since then. I'd really changed since that day. Things would never go back to the way they'd been. It was sad to think about it.

“So what happened?”

“Sachiko told us what happened to you,” he told me while he fixed his glasses. He didn't really elaborate, so I had to ask again.

“How much did she tell you?” As much as I cared about him and trusted him, I didn't want him to know everything.

“She told us how you were possessed and that you'd been afraid for us.” He paused there a moment before adding just one last thing. “She said that you made a promise to Mayu... What was it?”

“Mayu didn't tell you?” I thought out loud. That meant Mayu and Sakutaro had no idea about the feelings that the other had. “Where is she?”

“She wanted to be here, but she left yesterday morning.” Morning? That means I was out for at least a full day. “She was worried about you.”

It was quiet awhile, which was strange for us. There had never been any time when we didn't have something to say. Not since that day we'd met.

“What happens now?” Now that my name was known, I could find out my past. And if I did, what then? Just turn my back on the two years I've spent here with the greatest friends I've ever known? Would I even have the choice of staying here?

“What do you mean?”

“I remember my name, so I could... I...” Just the thought of it was too much. I couldn't bring myself to say that I could find my family, my past, everything.

“It's alright.” Sakutaro's arms wrapped around me in a comforting hug. “It won't be as bad as you think.”

“He's right you know,” a voice called from the doorway. It was familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to.

“You're still here?” I asked, expecting that he'd have been long gone by now. Did I remember his name? No. However, I did remember meeting him in Heavenly Host. The boy with the uniform I recognized but didn't know.

“We had deal,” he reminded me. I didn't know he'd heard that last thing I'd said. “Meet outside of that place and I'll tell you all I know about a girl named Sayuri Hoshikawa. Remember that?”

“I didn't think you heard me,” I admitted, looking at him as tried to remember the name he'd given me. “I turned around and you were gone.”

“You know her?”

“I believe so.”

Sakutaro looked as if he didn't really believe him, but there was no reason to not trust him. I recognized the uniform he had worn and he'd noted that he recognized my name. It was at least some sort of start to my search. If anything, it would at the very least rule out some of the places in this world as having been my former home.

“Tell me everything you know.”


	8. I'm Not Sure How To Feel

“I'm not even sure how to feel right now,” I told Kurosaki as we walked along the sidewalk. “Five years of being missing, it's a lot to take in.”

“Just relax, Hoshikawa,” he told me. In the hospital, he'd told me as much as he really could. He'd even mentioned that he knew someone who could tell me even more. “Everything will be alright.”

“How does this person know so much about me?” I was nervous, but who wouldn't be? Meeting a total stranger, someone who knew more about you than you did. “Even if they did know me, it's been five years. If I'm the person you say I am.”

“Right now, you sound just like she used to.” He laughed a bit to himself, only making me feel more nervous about the whole thing.

“I wish Sakutaro was here.” It was hard being so far away from him after being with him for two years. I didn't love him, but still I felt really lonely without him.

“Well, he did have a lot of schoolwork to catch up on,” Kurosaki said, just watching the sidewalk ahead of us. His comment, while it may have been a joke, sparked a thought in my own mind.

“Shouldn't you be in school?” I questioned.

He just stopped and laughed. “Actually I probably should be,” he admitted, giving me an embarrassed smile.

“Why aren't you?”

“Well, I kinda owe you for what happened in Heavenly Host,” he started as he looked off down the street again. “And that Sayuri Hoshikawa who disappeared five years ago was a really good friend of mine. If I could find her again... I'm sure it make a lot of people happy.”

“You cared a lot about her, didn't you?” His voice had changed slightly as he started talking about he girl he used to know. It had been just calm and informative before; now it had a soft, friendly feel to it.

He was a bit surprised at the sudden question, but soon answered with small laugh. “I guess I really liked her back then.” I looked over at his face a moment just to notice that he was blushing slightly.

“Would you like to talk about her?” I offered, bringing an even bigger smile to his face. It seemed strange talking about her as if there was no chance that I could be her. The thought was actually quite comforting.

“She was always looking out for everyone else. I remember how we met when I was nine. It was just like I met you, actually.”

“She pulled a hunk of wood out of your hand?” Kurosaki laughed again, a bit louder this time.

“Yeah. I remember... I'd tripped while I was playing... and a small sliver of a stick got jammed into my hand...” He paused a moment as he tried to recall that day that had been so long ago. “She just happened to be nearby and she'd heard me.”

“Lucky for you, I guess.”

“Yeah... She was always so kind and gentle... and that smile... so sweet and a bit shy... it was adorable.” His pace slowed a bit and soon we stopped. “She was always so worried about everyone else, never thought much about herself.”

“She sounds kinda like how I used to be,” I smiled a bit to myself. “It's funny how things can change like that.”

“What made you change?”

“I guess Sakutaro's personality rubbed off on me over the two years I spent with him,” I said, starting to feel sad again. He was probably busy with homework right now. “We were always really close... I wonder if he'll be alright without Mayu there...”

“What exactly was he to you? You started to sound like you love him, but you're worried about him not being with Mayu.”

“Well, I guess I loved him, but not quite like you're thinking.” This sort of thing wasn't easy to explain. “He was a friend, but in a way, he was more than that. Like family, but even closer than that. I knew from the beginning that he really cared for Mayu, and I wanted him to be with her. He'd be pretty lost without her, even if he doesn't quite realize it.”

“And this Mayu, how did she feel about him?”

“She felt the same way about him...” Feeling tears starting to form in my eyes at the memory of her last moments, I stopped talking about it.

“Hey, Hoshikawa, are you alright?” His hand rested on my shoulder, pulling my attention back to what we'd been doing before all this had come up.

“Just a memory, that's all.” I brushed away the tears that had started to form and put on a smile. It was forced, and I was sure it showed, though Kurosaki said nothing. “How much further is it?”

“Actually, we've been there for awhile now.”

I'd stopped paying attention to our surroundings quite awhile ago, but now I'd noticed we stood just a few feet from the door to the home of the one he'd said could tell me more about the girl who shared the same name as me.

“So this is...?”

“Don't worry.”

Don't worry. Such a pointless phrase. If you had to tell someone not to worry, usually they would be the type to worry anyway.

“I-I don't know if I can do this...” Was I really ready to know who I was? What if there was nothing left for me? Or maybe I had a family. What then? Do I just leave behind everyone and everything I've known for some family I didn't even know I had? The thought alone was just too much.

“Everything will be fine,” he insisted, turning my face towards him. “Trust me.”

I wasn't really so sure about it, but I just nodded and prepared myself. I turned the other way as he knocked on the door.

“Hello Kensuke,”a woman's voice answered. “What brings you here?”

“There's someone I'd like you to meet.” Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed me by my shoulders, turning me and pushing me towards the strange woman.

She gasped, but said nothing. When I finally looked up, I was shocked to find that she was no stranger. I didn't have to have my memory to know who she was. I recognized her. I may not remember her exactly, but I recognized her and knew exactly who she was.

“Mom?”


	9. Back To Normal? Not Likely

It was strange being in my bedroom for the first time in five years. I still didn't remember much, but I recognized this room.

Blue walls that reminded me of cotton candy. My guess was that it had been one of my favorite colors, even back then. In the corner was a desk, covered with notebooks. Some had homework assignments and others had been used to pass notes in class.

I felt like I remembered this. The more I thought about it all, the more I realized something. This wasn't the room of a girl like I was now.

 _I've really changed,_ I thought to myself as I felt under the desk for a secret spot where I remembered that I'd used to hide my journal. It would have answers for me that this room itself couldn't give me.

Some things could be figured out just by the room's contents. A few pictures scattered around the room showed the people I assumed had been my friends. I found it strange that Kurosaki had mentioned being friends, though none of the pictures showed him. All except one in a frame on the top shelf of the desk.

It was a group picture showing me with a couple of the girls from the other pictures as well as Kurosaki and a couple other boys that hadn't been in the other pictures. I had removed it from the frame to see if the names were written on the back, but no such luck. Blank.

On a nearby shelf sat many books all neatly lined up. Some were girly ones you'd expect a teenage girl to be reading, but the rest were quite varied. There was just about everything from Adventure to Horror to Manga. That was really no help, other than it told me that I'd liked to read fiction stories.

Suddenly, I found what I'd been searching for on the underside of the desk. I pulled out the small silver journal, and to my surprise a few more pictures fell out. Picking them up, I realized why none of the others had him in them. Apparently they'd been hidden. But why though? Had I done it?

Opening the journal, I skimmed through the writing. It was like it was written by a completely different person. Had this really been me? It seemed impossible. A girl that seemed to be so naive and innocently friendly couldn't possibly become someone as distant and seemingly emotionless as I was.

 _This can't be me..._ I thought to myself as I read through the entries. The pages had all kinds of cutesy drawings in the margins. It made me feel sick to my stomach just looking at them.

The entries said nothing of importance now, so I figured it was pointless reading it. However, the last few pages caught my eye just as I was setting it down.

First entry: _“I think someone's been watching me. I'm worried. What could they want from me? I don't think I hurt anybody.”_

Second:  _“Something's not right. Kensuke says I'm just imagining things. Maybe he's right. I hope he is anyway.”_

Third/Final:  _“Something's after me. I'm really scared. Maybe I should run before it can make a move. I'm going to hide some of my pictures just in case something happens.”_

It's funny how things worked out. As I was trying to escape this mysterious person, I'd managed to lose my memory, saved a bunch of complete strangers, almost died a few times, and now I was searching the place I'd run away from.

That's a lot to happen over five years and most of it had been over the past few weeks. Of course, there was no use dwelling on it now.

 

While no more of my memory returned, I proceeded to attend Byakudan as I had intended to do before I'd disappeared. The idea wasn't that exciting, but it at least made me feel like my life could be normal like it had been long before I'd lost my memory.

Of course, “normal” wasn't really an option. No normal life for poor little Sayuri. Maybe it would be for the better.

 

Being new, most of the other students kept their distance from me. I didn't really mind it though. It was actually nice.

However, one student at least attempted to be polite. He introduced himself as Masato Fukuroi. “Do you need help finding your way around?”

Until now, I hadn't looked at him, so he couldn't see my face. But the moment he saw, he took a couple steps back and almost looked afraid.

“What's wrong?” I asked, not even thinking.

“Nothing,” he covered, keeping his voice calm. That's when it hit me.

“I look like someone you've seen before, right?” I guessed. I kept forgetting about the physical similarities between Sachiko and myself, as well as the fact that anyone who'd been in Heavenly Host might remember seeing her there and possibly recognize me as her.

“Just something I saw in a dream, that's all,” he said, recovering from his sudden reaction.

“Well, this is where I'm going,” I said, showing him the paper that had my classes written on it.

He led me to where I had to go and then headed towards where he needed. But before he got a few steps, I had one last thing to say to him. This startled him even more than my appearance had.“Sachiko wasn't a dream!”


	10. Byakudan High School

Trying to live normally didn't go as I expected.

At first I figured things would improve over time. It really ended up being the exact opposite.

I understood that anyone who had been in Heavenly Host and had seen Sachiko would likely be uncomfortable around me. What I hadn't considered was that because those few people seemed to fear or dislike me, others might pick up on it and start to feel the same without a reason.

While Kurosaki still willingly talked with me, no one else even considered it. To them, I was just an unwanted classmate. All of us knew it, but that didn't matter so much to me. It was the reaction of one classmate of mine that really hit me.

Yuuya Kizami. The one who I just happened to be stuck sitting next to every day in class. While all the others were more subtle about not wanting me around, he made it quite obvious. He never said a word to or about me, but his actions made it quite clear. Everyone else's whispers around me only supported this.

_She's weird. A freak. Kizami's even afraid of her. Something must be wrong with her. Maybe she's..._

The list of things they said was endless. Had it just been them talking, I'd have ignored it like I imagined Sakutaro would have. However, the fact that Kizami was constantly trying to keep distance between us and that he always avoided speaking to me or even looking in my direction definitely pushed me over my limits.

Today was no different. I listened to the teacher going on and on about who knows what while I kept glancing over at Kizami every so often. Like every other day, he sat as far from me as possible while still sitting at his desk, shifting uncomfortably the entire time.

 _Can't say I blame him for being so uneasy when I'm around,_ I thought to myself, growing more irritated as this went on.  _But he's making this even more difficult. It's not like I actually hurt him. Sure, it probably scared him pretty badly, but it was the only way I could make sure he didn't repeat the things he'd done in that place._

Out of nowhere, a crumpled up piece of paper hit my arm then landed on my desk. The teacher paid no attention, so I looked in the direction I thought it had come from. It turned out it came from Kurosaki, who simply gave me a smile and turned back to the teacher who was still lecturing.

I opened up the ball of paper to find just one sentence neatly written.  _Don't let it get to you._ It wasn't much, but it was enough to calm me down for a bit.  _Thanks Kurosaki,_  I said to myself, making a mental note to thank him later.

As the teacher continued on, an idea came to mind. Quickly writing just a few sentences down, I copied what Kurosaki had done for me. But the note wasn't intended for him, it was for Kizami. There was no way he'd ever let me get anywhere near him, so talking to him wasn't an option. This was the next best thing.

I didn't look at him, so he couldn't tell it was me until after he'd read it. However, I couldn't help but glance over at him out of the corner of my eye to see his reaction. It was hard to tell what he was feeling, but when he looked at me, I knew my words had gotten to him. However, what happened next likely destroyed the tiny bit of progress I'd made.

The door opened and someone entered. A child's voice had a inaudible conversation with our teacher. I knew that voice all too well. It may have been awhile, but it was one that I will never forget.

Sachiko.

After some brief arguing between the two, the teacher reluctantly gave in to whatever it was that Sachiko had wanted, resulting in a big smile from her. If a certain few students hadn't seen the things she had done in Heavenly Host, everyone would have thought it was adorable.

“Sayuri,” the teacher's voice called and he motioned towards the little girl. It wasn't hard to figure it out. I grabbed my things and followed her out the door, not even glancing back at everyone who was staring.

“Thanks for rescuing me,” I said as we walked down the hallway. “So what do you need?”

“I know of someone who may have some answers to our problem.” For a moment, I didn't know what she was talking about. Then I remembered everything.

She was only half of her spirit. The other half was me. To put her spirit to rest, she had to join the two halves. But despite everything she did, my half resisted her. Neither of us knew why and until we could figure it out, Sachiko was left to wander around.

“So who is he?”

“They study paranormal things. You may remember them from Heavenly Host,” she informed me, though she didn't quite answer my question.

“How about a name?”

“Kou Kibiki and Naho Saenoki.” Of the two, I only recognized one. I'd come across her name tag once during the time I'd spent in that cursed school, but that was all. It had been an unusual name to me, but that was about all I remembered.

“So when are we going to see these Paranormal Researchers?”

“Right now.”


	11. Rescuing Me Again, Sachi?

“Hey, don't hold on so tightly. It makes it harder to breathe.” I'd been carrying Sachiko for awhile now. She's said she was tired and couldn't much further, so I'd decided to carry her on my back for awhile. Lucky for me, she was still small enough that it wasn't that difficult.

“Sorry Sayuri,” she giggled, loosening her grip. She was quiet a moment before asking, “Sayuri, do you remember your mom?”

It was an odd question, but I guess in my situation it was a good question. “I remember who she is and what she was always like.” I still didn't have all my memories back yet, but I could at least remember my own mother. Besides, I had been able to see her again, thanks to Kurosaki.

“What's she like?”

“Well, she's very smart,” I started, trying to think of how to describe her. With the rain coming down like it was though, it made it a bit difficult to concentrate on much. “She was always kind to everyone, no matter what she thought of them. And strong. She could always put on a brave face even when her world was crumbling around her.”

“She sounds nice,” she giggled.

“Do you remember your mother, Sachiko?”

She was quiet a moment before responding. It took awhile to get her to open up about it a bit, but once I got her talking, it all came out. Some of her last memories of her mom and of what happened when she had died.

She told me of how she'd seen how her mother had really died, and then how she'd been killed because of what she'd seen. It was a horrible story, but she didn't seem to be bothered by it anymore. Guess I'd probably be calm about it too if I'd had so much time to remember it.

“Hey Sachi, how much further is it?” I asked after our little storytelling session had ended. It was still raining and the sun had gone down awhile ago.

“It's just up ahead,” she said, pausing a moment before adding, “I'll walk the rest of the way.”

I stopped walking to let her climb down. Then I took a look around us. The were a few houses nearby, but there was no indication of which one was the one we were looking for. “Which one is it?”

“There. That one.” Sachiko pointed at house just ahead of us. The lights were still on inside, so that was a good sign for us. Neither Sachiko or I had thought it'd have taken us as long as it did to get here. Thinking back a bit, I hadn't told anyone where I was going, or that I was even going anywhere.

“So, this Kibiki guy... you really think he can help us?”

“I don't know.”

So not what I wanted to hear after coming all the way out here. However, despite my annoyance with this, I kept myself calm. “You know Sachi, you really should have said that before we came all the way out here,” I said as I approached the door. After a few moments, a girl who looked about high school age answered.

“I'm looking for someone name Kibiki,” I told her, trying to be as polite as possible.

She looked me over, as if she wasn't sure what to tell me. She said nothing, but the look on her face pretty much said “get lost.” When I opened my mouth to speak again, the girl just shut the door, leaving me standing there.

“What now Sachiko?” I asked with a sigh. When I turned around to talk to her about our next move, I found myself alone. “Great. Tired, cold and alone in the rain and it's dark. How could this day get any worse?” Turning to the sidewalk, I started to walk away.

Suddenly, a scream came from inside the house. Turning back towards it, I debated on whether or not to keep going. The door opened again, this time by an older man. He stood there with little Sachiko peeking out from behind him with a wide smile on her face.

“Rescuing me again, Sachi?” I laughed as I approached the two standing before me.

“I wouldn't make you come all the way out here for nothing!” she said cheerfully as the man standing beside her motioned for me to come in.


	12. The Paranormal Researchers

The girl who had answered the door turned out to be Naho. Sachiko had mentioned that after her death, she'd wandered around Heavenly Host and met with several of my friends from Kisaragi. The man who had come to the door the second time had been Kibiki.

“That's a very interesting situation,” Kibiki said after Sachiko and I had explained the situation with our souls. Well, I should say _soul_  since we shared hers. “I'm afraid at this point I know of no way to help the two of you.”

“Well, I guess it was worth a try,” I sighed, trying to figure out what to do next.

“Perhaps between the four of us, we might be able to work out some sort of solution,” he said before I had a chance to do anything.

“We kind of hit a wall with our Heavenly Host research,” added another man, who I hadn't really noticed until now.

“Only because you're too coward to try out the charm,” Naho said, somewhat teasing him.

“You don't mean that Sachiko charm, do you?” I asked suddenly. Clearly Naho and Kibiki didn't seem to remember having already done the charm or they just believed it to have been a dream. This other man didn't seem to have the same feelings about it that they did.

Their slightly stunned reaction told me I'd guessed it.

“You remember more than they do, don't you?” I asked the other man. Thinking about it, something about him seemed familiar. No doubt he'd been in Heavenly Host. “You know it was real.” I studied him, trying to remember my brief time in that school.

He seemed a bit uncomfortable with the way I was looking him over. “H-how do you know that?”

“How do you think the three of you got out?” Sachiko answered for me. That caught the attention of the other two. We had left out the events in Heavenly Host intentionally, but because of this one man we had to talk about our involvement.

“I was not a victim of that cursed school,” I started, answering the questions they hadn't asked yet. It would be better to tell them before they had a chance to respond. “In fact, I had no knowledge of Heavenly Host or the Sachiko Charm. All I had known was that a very dear friend of mine had disappeared suddenly and no one seemed to remember him. That was when Sachiko and I met.”

Sachiko and I proceeded to tell them of how we had released them from the awful place. I didn't tell them everything that happened, just what they might possibly need to know. To be honest, there were some things I didn't want to remember.

After some discussion on the problem, I stood up to leave. When I realized I still didn't know the other man's name, I walked over to him. “I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Sayuri.” I extended my hand out to him, but as he shook my hand, something completely unexpected happened.

The moment my hand touched his, some brief memories played out. The only one that really mattered was the moment he'd run into someone I knew too well. This told me how he'd known what happened was real, as well as what his name was.

“Sachi?” I asked after coming back to reality. Looking over at her, she simply just shook her head. I turned back to the man in front of me. He seemed quite shaken up by what had happened. It had been similar to what happened with Yuka and then with Kizami. “That's new. That hasn't happened without Sachi being involved.”

“What happened?” asked a concerned-looking Kibiki. When I gave him a confused look, he explained more. “You both screamed.”

I hadn't even realized I'd done it. “Your name is Shougo Taguchi, isn't it? You saw it too, didn't you?” He just nodded and left me to explain it. “Those were some of your memories from inside Heavenly Host.”

“This is the third time,” Sachiko added for me. “Each time was different. But this is the first time she'd done it without me. It's only been done with those who have been in Heavenly Host, but it doesn't work with everyone.”

“Quite interesting,” Kibiki said, thinking it over. “Perhaps we can look into it while working out a solution for your problem.”

“One problem with you studying that,” I pointed out. “I have school. I'm a too far behind as it is after having transferred in the middle of the year and with the whole mess with Heavenly Host and the results of it. Not to mention I've been missing for five years and I have yet to regain most of my memory.”

There wasn't much you could say to argue with that. All research involving me and Sachiko would have to be completed using only Sachi for the time being. No way around that.

Then there was the issue of communication. I couldn't come all the way out here every time they had a question for me. Unlucky for me, I'd lost my cell phone sometime around the time I'd visited Heavenly Host, so that wasn't really an option.

“Sayuri, isn't this yours?” Sachiko asked me, pulling my mind from my thought. She held a small rectangular object in her hands, which looked strangely familiar.

“Sachi, how long have you had that?” I questioned, slightly irritated that she hadn't shown it to me a lot sooner than this. My cell phone that had been missing for awhile.

“I got it from your friend's home while you were recovering after Kizami stabbed you.” That had been at least a month ago.

“Sachi...” I mumbled in frustration.  _At least I got it back. Bet there aren't any messages on it when I finally turn the thing on._ “Well, I guess we have a way to communicate now.”


	13. Frustrating Memories

“Why can't I figure out who all these people are?” I mumbled in frustration. In the middle of my bedroom, I sat on the floor in the middle of all the pictures I'd found scattered around.

I'd spread every one of them out on my floor, hoping somehow I could force myself to remember even the tiniest little thing.

“Come on! Remember something already!” I ordered my brain, trying to pound the information out of my head. Too bad for me, luck was never on my side.

“You get back into bed right now missy,” my mother's voice said from the doorway. She'd been very upset with me for taking off without telling her the other day. Unlucky for me, all that time walking in the rain without an umbrella had done its damage as well.

When she saw the pictures scattered about, she simply sighed. “I know it's hard for you, but you need to stay in bed until you get better. Your memories aren't going anywhere, so don't try to rush it.”

“I need to remember  _now_ though,” I countered. Still sitting in the same spot, I picked up one of the pictures. This one was of me and a little boy with red hair. He'd been hanging upside down from a tree branch while I was sitting about a foot away on that same branch. “Maybe then everyone wouldn't act so afraid of me.”

“If you insist on trying to remember, do it while resting in bed,” Mom said, walking away.

 _If only I could remember their names,_ I thought while I gathered up my pictures and climbing back into my bed.  _I wish Mayu and Sakutaro were here. They'd know what to do... Mayu always was better with people than I am._

“Why does this have to be so complicated?” Tears started forming in my eyes from frustration. As I sat up, I just buried my face in my hands.

If it hadn't been for that stupid Sachiko Charm that Ayumi talked the others into doing, this mess wouldn't be happening. Sure, I'd probably have less of my memory, but I could have been happy.

In just a couple months, I'd been possessed, taken to a school that doesn't exist anymore, watched countless people die horrible deaths, revived those victims, nearly got killed by vengeful ghosts and a zombie-like guy, almost lost my best friend forever, gotten stabbed by a murderer who I go to school with, and visited with paranormal researchers. Not to mention everyone in my new school seemed to hate me and I'd become good friends with the child ghost who was responsible for all those deaths in Heavenly Host. And on top of all that, I had no memory from before I'd met Sakutaro two years ago.

Was a normal day too much to ask for?

“Hey Hoshikawa,” a very familiar voice called from the door of my room. Guess that means Mom wasn't that mad anymore if she was letting any friends visit with me.

“Hey...” I looked up at him and pushed back my emotions for now.

“Your mom said you've been kind of down lately,” he said, pulling the chair from my desk over next to my bed. “Want to talk?”

 

After having told him all about what had been bothering me, I instantly felt a lot better.

“So what's with the pictures?” I'd forgotten that I'd left them on my bed earlier. I handed the stack of pictures to him and he flipped through them.

“I've been trying to remember them, but I just can't...” I pulled one of the pictures out at random, hoping maybe Kurosaki could help me. It was the same one of me and the red haired boy in the tree. Suddenly, I felt something stirring in my brain.

“I remember him a little...” I mumbled, looking closer at the photo.

_One of the older kids had thrown the stuffed bunny I used to carry around all the time up into a tree. I'd climbed it and was almost able to reach it. Standing up on the branch, my foot slipped._

_That boy had been climbing around in the tree and I hadn't seen him until he'd grabbed my hand to keep me from falling._

“ _You should be more careful,” he had said with a smile. Then as I'd sat down on the branch I'd nearly fallen off of, he hung himself upside down on the branch above me and handed me my rabbit. “My name's….”_

Then my memory cut off.

“Why can't I remember his name?”

“Well, I don't know who he could be, but I might know someone who would know,” Kurosaki started to say, but got distracted by another picture. He'd still been flipping through them and stopped on one that he seemed to recognize. “I remember that one. That's me.” He pointed at a picture of three children. One was me and another was Kurosaki. It looked like it'd been taken at some sort of festival. Kurosaki then pointed at the other little boy. “That's Kizami.”

That confused me. You'd think if we'd know each other before the mess with Heavenly Host, then he wouldn't act so afraid of me. But then again, what part of my life made sense anymore? “Not the same Kizami that...” I trailed off, unsure how to finish that sentence.

“Yeah, that Kizami. That was actually the first time you;d met him.” Kurosaki then went on to explain what happened that day.

Apparently he'd convince Kizami to go to that festival and I'd ended up running into the two of them. Originally my mom was going to take a picture of just me and Kurosaki. But, with me being me, I'd insisted that Kizami be in it too, saying that Kurosaki's friends were my friends too.

From there we talked about every one of the pictures that he could tell me about. Most of those had him and people he used to know. Anything that had no one he knew would get set aside and we'd move on to the next picture.

Eventually the two of us ended up sitting together in the middle of the floor, with my pictures scattered around us. For the first time since Sakutaro had disappeared, I felt like I was normal. Maybe with a little help from a friend, I could make everything work out.

“We can talk to some of my friends when you're back at school,” Kurosaki said, picking up another picture and looking it over. “I'm sure one of them will know who these people are.”

“They'll never talk to me,” I sighed, giving him a sad smile. “I look like the vicious ghost from their nightmares of Heavenly Host. There's no way any of them will help me.”

“They will if I'm with you.”


	14. Meeting With Faces From The Past

“Come on, everyone's waiting!”

I didn't really want to do this, but Kurosaki had went through all the trouble of getting this group together. The least I could do was try.

Kurosaki pulled me into the student council room where his friends waited. With everyone staring at me, I held my notebook tight to my chest. Inside it were some of the pictures I'd wished to learn about. But, as much as I wanted to know, I had great doubts about this.

“What's this about Kurosaki?” one of the girls in the room asked, sounding a bit rude.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” I said to him. As I turned and started to walk away, Kurosaki stopped me.

“You wanted answers, didn't you?” He reached out and grabbed my arm, causing me to drop my notebook and scattering the pictures.

Immediately I pulled my arm from his grip. Kneeling down, I started to pick up my pictures that scattered across the floor. While reaching for the one of the boy in the tree, another hand reached down and took it.

“Why do you have this?” the person asked as I looked up to them. His hair was red, just like the boy from that picture.

“It's mine. I thought one of you might know who the red-headed boy was,” I explained calmly.

“That's why I brought her to see all of you guy,” Kurosaki added, taking the other pictures from my hands.

“So why do you have a picture of me and the girl I was friends with?” the red-headed guy said a bit rudely. So he had been the boy in the picture, but what was his name?

“Why should I know? It not my fault I can't remember anything before two years ago,” I said, ripping the photo out of his hands. “My things are my own business anyway.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but just closed it again. For just a second, his eyes went wide and then a smile spread across his face.

Before I could ask why, his arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. “Why didn't you just say it was you, bunny girl?” He laughed a bit and messed up my hair with his hand. “I don't remember why we quit hanging out then, but what does that matter? We're pals now, right?”

I just stood there stunned a moment. Bunny girl? That's right, the boy had often called me that. But what was his name?

“I told you someone would know, didn't I?” Kurosaki laughed at me as I stared up at the red-headed guy whose name I couldn't remember. “Do you remember his name yet?”

I thought about it really hard. It had to be somewhere inside my brain. Thinking back to the day I'd met him, I played through some possible names until I found it. “Kai...” I whispered to myself, then I said it out loud. “Kai... Shimada, right?”

After that, we all gathered around and flipped through all the pictures. As we did, I could feel little parts of my memory coming back.

“Awwww... little Yuuya!”

“There's Fukuroi too!”

“Hey Emi, that's you and Mitsuki.”

For each picture there was someone who had something to say. Some pictures caught more attention than others. One of Fukuroi and myself brought all of us a good laugh. Apparently laughing wasn't something he did often, since one of the girls, Tohko I thought her name was, asked how I'd managed to make him laugh like that. Obviously, I didn't remember, so I'd had to ask him.

“I'd rather not say,” he said, frowning a bit. “That was a quite unpleasant event.”

“Don't be such a stick in the mud,” I laughed, nudging him with my elbow. “You had such a cute laugh! You better hope I don't-”

Something tugging at my skirt brought my attention away from the group. Standing there next to me was a smiling little girl.

“Hey Sachi,” I greeted her with a smile while everyone else took a step back. Then I remembered she'd been helping Kibiki until now. “Have Naho and Kibiki had any luck finding a way to fix us?”

She just shook her head. She held out something for me. “I brought these for you.” They were two photos. The first one was old, showing a young girl and who I assumed was her mother. Looking closer, the little girl turned out to be Sachiko. “We talked about mommy, remember?”

“I remember. So what's the-” I stopped the moment I saw it. The second picture was much newer, only about two years old. I knew because I remembered when we took it. “Sakutaro... Mayu...” I looked over to Sachiko.

“You miss them, right? You left it at his home,” she explained, smiling up at me. “I thought it would make you feel better if you had it back.”

I just stared at the photo in my hand, forgetting all about the others in the room. “I hope you're doing alright on your own, Sakutaro. Thank you Sachi-” I'd looked up to thank her, but she was gone already. Guess that meant it would have to wait until the next time we met. Though the next time might be when Kibiki and Naho could fix us, meaning I may no longer exist in this world.

It was a scary thought. No doubt my concern showed. “Sayuri?” I heard one of the girls ask, though I paid no attention to who it was.

“You asked if she'd found a way to fix you,” the voice I recognized as Fukuroi's said. Apparently he'd noticed my little slip-up. “What were you talking about?”

“Hoshikawa?”

I put on a brave face and merely smiled at them. “It's nothing you need to worry about. Let's just enjoy the time we have together.”


	15. Messing With Fukuroi

Even after most of the group had left, I stayed behind in the student council room. The only ones left other than myself were Fukuroi and Kurosaki. I kept myself busy by gathering up all my pictures that were now scattered about.

Soon Kurosaki left, leaving just me and Fukuroi. I was still going through my photos, making sure they were all there. One was missing, but I couldn't figure out which one. No matter how much I tried, I could remember which one wasn't there.

Giving up for the moment, I glanced over to where Fukuroi stood, organizing a storage locker. If she hadn't had something important to do, I'm sure Mitsuki would have been right there helping him. Relationships might not be my thing, but even I could tell there was something between the two. What that something was exactly was still a bit of a mystery.

 _He's so serious and tense all the time. Has he always been like that?_ I found myself thinking, forgetting all about the missing picture. As a thought came to mind, it was hard not to smile.  _I wonder what it'll take to get to him._ Sure, this was probably a bit mean, but I was going to do it anyway.

Careful to step as quietly as possible, I walked up behind him. He didn't seem to notice, so I got as close as I could without him noticing I was there. Standing on my toes, I could just see over his shoulder. “Whatcha doin'?” I asked, making him jump.

He seemed a bit annoyed at my little trick, but just went back to what he'd been doing.  _Okay, let's try something else._ This time, I stood next to him and leaned against him with most of my left side touching his right arm. “Want some help?” I offered, trying to use a sweet and innocent voice, though it didn't quite work.

“I guess I could use a hand,” he said, taking a step away from me. It was working, I'd gotten past part of his tough exterior. How much further could I go with this? That brief moment of touching had made him a tiny bit uneasy, so if I tried something else, could it maybe do more?

Now standing beside him, I tried to think of every little thing I could that might his lose that serious look on his face. Keeping close to him, I started to help him with cleaning while I figured out what to do.

“It's Masato, isn't it? You don't mind if I call you by your first name, do you?” I asked, turning towards him.

“I don't mind,” he said. Fukuroi was still fairly calm on the outside, but his voice was starting to show how uneasy he was starting to feel. Looks like I might just be able to get to him, assuming I don't screw up.

“Everyone at Kisaragi always called my by my first name, so I always did the same with them. You can call me by my first name too if you like.” As I spoke, I very slowly moved closer to him, causing him to move a way just as slowly.

He was quiet after that. He kept his focus on what he was doing, but once in awhile he would glance over at me and nervously take a step away. Eventually we weren't even near the storage locker anymore, without either of us really realizing it.

“Sayuri, why do you keep doing that?” Fukuroi asked with a sigh. He turned towards me with his arms crossed. He was forcing himself to maintain his calm and serious attitude, but it was kind of obvious that I was getting to him.

“Doing what?” I asked with a mischievous smile. As I took a step towards him, he took a step back. For every step I took, he would back up. Until he tripped over a chair, landing in it and losing his glasses in the process. So now he was trapped.

It was hard not to laugh. He was trapped, he knew it, and his face definitely showed it. Good to know that deep down he really was human, even if he didn't show his feelings much.

Leaning forward so that there was even less space between us, I did my best not to let him know that I was only trying to see how much I could get to him. I placed my hand on his chin, making him look me in the eye. There was only a few inches between us now, and it was very obvious that he was uncomfortable with how close I was.

“S-Sayuri...” Mission accomplished. I backed a way from him allowing him to get up. Picking them up off the floor, I brushed off his glasses and handed them back to him. He was still a little shaky, but he'd get over it. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Before walking a way, I leaned over and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. “You really need to lighten up a bit, Masato. Try to have fun once in a while,” I told him before laughing and walking away, leaving him with a slightly confused look on his face.


	16. You're Hiding Something

I hate getting sick. I'd rather take my chances in Heavenly Host than be sick for a week. Funny thing was, I had no idea how I'd managed to get sick again. Regardless, here I was, sick in my bed again.

“Why now?” I complained to myself as I sat in my empty room. “Of all the times to get sick, why did it have to happen just when I was making progress with figuring everything out.” I just laid there in bed, staring up at my ceiling. What was I supposed to do? Most of the time I couldn't sit up without getting so dizzy that I felt like I was about to pass out.

“Are you a friend of Sayuri's?” I heard my mother saying to someone downstairs. The person's response was too quiet for me to really hear who it was or what they were saying. “I see. Why don't you take that up to her? She's upstairs in her room; first door on the left.”

The mystery person made their way up to my room. As they entered the doorway, I forced myself to sit up. Luckily, I'd avoided the dizziness.

“They said you were going to be out of school for awhile, so I brought some of your homework for you,” the familiar voice of Fukuroi said from the doorway. He came in and set the books and papers he had in his hands on my desk. “It would be better if you didn't get too behind. You are still catching up from before, after all.”

“Thank you,” I said. Thinking a moment, I motioned for him to sit next to me. “Will you sit with me for a little while? It's kind of lonely here.”

He hesitated a moment before his softer side won out and he sat down beside me. I noticed him keeping a bit of distance between us and I soon remembered why. That day in the student council room must have scared him. It should have been expected, but it still surprised me a little that he would be uncomfortable being close to me.

“Hey, Fukuroi?” When I spoke, he turned his head towards me. “About before... I... I'm sorry if I scared you or anything... I was just trying to mess with you and I really didn't think the whole thing through.”

“It's alright.” He gave me a kind smile and let me sit a bit closer to him. It was quiet for awhile before either of us said anything. “Sayuri?”

“Yeah?”

“There's something you're hiding from us, isn't there?”

I didn't want to answer that. There was no answer that could be given that wouldn't make him ask more questions. “I don't want anyone to worry. It's my problem, not theirs.”

“Don't you trust us?”

No question could possibly hurt more at this moment. That was a question that had no good answer. If I said I didn't, then he'd be hurt. If I said I did, then it would only prompt him to question my trust and the reasons for hiding this from them.

“It's not a matter of trust. I just don't want any of you to worry about something none of us can do anything about.”

“This has something to do with Sachiko, doesn't it?” Fukuroi asked, knowing that he was right. He'd been the one to point out my slip-up when I had asked Sachiko if Kibiki and Naho had found a way to fix us. I'd just talked myself into a corner.

“We're the same.” My head was starting to feel dizzy, so I just rested it on Fukuroi's shoulder. “Me and Sachiko, we're the same. Two halves of the same soul.”

He seemed confused, but stayed quiet and allowed me to continue. “Her spirit can't move on because it's not whole. The other half is me.” This was probably starting to make less and less sense, but I was trying to explain as much as I could before my dizziness got the better of me. “So if she's going to move on and leave this world, it may mean I can't stay here. If that's true then I might only have until Kibiki figures out why Sachiko couldn't join our souls and make them them whole.”

“You're afraid,” he observed, comfortingly putting an arm around my shoulder. My vision was starting to get blurry and I could tell it was only a matter of seconds before I was out.

“I'm terrified. But... don't say anything to the others. Please Fukuroi?”

“I won't say a word.”


	17. Sayuri's Regret & Secret

I soon found myself being woken up by a click and a flash from what I could only guess was a camera. Sitting up much too quickly, I soon saw two faces standing in my doorway. Standing there were Kurosaki and my mother, laughing their heads off.

“What was that for?”

“You were just so cute there together,” my mother said. I gave her a small glare, making her laugh even more. “You've been gone for five years, so I missed your first boyfriend and all of that stuff. At least let me have this.”

Now I was the one laughing. “You didn't actually miss anything,” I told her before realizing that might actually be worse than her having missed all of that. That's when the laughing stopped.

“You mean you've never had a boyfriend?”

“So that means you haven't kissed anyone yet?”

“Well... I wouldn't say that...” That earned me a few surprised looks. Not having a boyfriend didn't necessarily mean that I'd never... well you get the idea. “A lot has happened in two years. I'm not exactly proud of some of it, but I don't really regret any of it. To be honest, there's only one thing I do regret.”

“What would that be?” He asked the one question no one else wanted to ask.

“I regret ever falling for someone who would never share the same feelings I had.”

“You're talking about that friend of yours. Morishige, right?”

“No. It'd have been much easy if it had been.” I laughed a little, though I don't know why. This was still a bit of a touchy subject with me, but I wasn't going to let them know that. “My feelings for him weren't quite like that. Look, I don't mind telling you his name since you'll probably never meet him. His name was Yoshiki. In a way, he was Sakutaro's friend. But like I said, he'd never share the same feeling as me. I'm over it.”

That had been a bit of a lie. Deep down, I was still hurting. For a moment, I'd had him. If Ayumi hadn't shown up, he'd never have run out on me like that. Having a guy ditch you for someone else always hurt. It was a feeling that wouldn't go away quickly or easily. But I wasn't going to tell them about that.

“Must have been quite awhile ago,” Kurosaki said, sitting down in my desk chair. I was sitting up on my bed with Fukuroi on one side, my mom on the other.

“Actually, not that long ago. But it doesn't matter; I could never really love anyone anyway.”

It was a pretty sad statement. Of course, my mother and Kurosaki took that to mean that I was unable to love someone. Only Fukuroi knew what I'd really meant.

It wasn't that I couldn't; it was that I was choosing not to because of Sachiko. It was a way of protecting both myself and anyone who might ever have any sort of feelings for me. If I didn't allow myself to feel that way, then no one could really get hurt, right?


	18. This Doesn't Concern You

Kurosaki and Fukuroi never brought up anything about the things I'd said while I'd been sick. It was nice. The things I'd told them weren't exactly things I was proud of, so I'd rather not have the whole world know.

After being sick like I had been, it was actually nice to be back in school. Even though the day had been very uneventful.

So now that classes were done, I was in the student council room with some of my classmates. Some of them were people I'd known before I'd lost my memory. Others, such as the pair playing a video game right in front of me, were people that I'd only gotten to know recently.

Ryosuke Katayama and Tomohiro Ohkawa. From what I'd come to know, the two were obsessed with video games, especially dating sims. Also you hardly ever found one without the other. Though if you watched them, one was obviously more of the leader and the other seemed to just follow his lead. I didn't quite remember if the two were among the many I'd brought back from Heavenly Host though...

Right now the duo were messing around with one of their little games and I was bored. So instead of sitting around or trying to get Fukuroi to let me help him, I decided to check on this adorable pair.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked, standing behind the two. Since I was standing between the two and looking over their shoulders, they glanced up at me a minute before saying something about the game that I didn't understand at all. Sakutaro wasn't the gaming type and I hardly ever played anything before, so I knew basically nothing.

Since I figured this would take a bit for me to really understand a word they were saying, I rested my arm on Tomohiro's shoulder like the armrest on a chair. “Okay, mind going over all that again? I don't speak Gamer language,” I laughed a bit. To be honest, I probably looked like a complete idiot. But they didn't seem to mind that. Must not be often that they find a girl interested in their games.

After another explanation, I thought I was starting to get it. “So basically you-” My sentence was cut off as my hand touched Ryosuke's shoulder and his memories in Heavenly Host flashed through my mind. He spent a shorter amount of time alive in that place than the rest, but it was probably worse than the others' time spent there.

When I finally recovered, I'd noticed that I was a few feet further from Ryosuke than I had been. Everyone was looking at us, so it was safe to assume that one of us had screamed or at least freaked out. They were all confused, except Kurosaki. He had seen this before.

“What happened?”

“Sayuri? Katayama?”

“Ryosuke, are you okay?”

So many voices asking the same question, but right now I couldn't even tell who each voice belonged to. “Not again... Why now? Damn it! Why does this keep happening?” My outburst seemed to catch their attention. “First Yuka... Kizami was on purpose, but still it happened... then Kibiki's friend Taguchi... and still it happens? Why the hell do I have to go through this every time I touch someone I had to bring back?”

“Sayuri? What do you mean by 'bring back'?” The moment Tohko had asked that question, I knew I'd screwed up big time. I had purposely avoided telling anyone about what had happened in Heavenly Host. Not even Kurosaki had any idea about it. He only knew that I had been doing something in that cursed school that nearly got me killed and it involved Sachiko.

“I... It's nothing!” I quickly covered. Before anyone else had a chance to say anything, I turned and headed towards the door. On the way, someone had rushed forward and grabbed my left arm. I turned to find Kurosaki trying to stop me from leaving.

“Why won't you tell us what's going on?” He sounded a bit frustrated.

“Kensuke, just let it go,” Fukuroi said to him. Good to know someone was on my side. “There's a reason she hasn't told you about what's going on. From the look on her face when it happened, it seems like she doesn't understand it either.”

“That doesn't answer what she said before that! Those people she named... we were all in Heavenly Host! So just what did she mean when she mentioned bringing them back? She knew very well what was going on then! So just what are you hiding from us?” As Kurosaki finished his little rant, I could feel my whole body shaking.

Until now, I'd just told myself that what had happened in there was nothing, that it didn't bother me at all. Now all the memories I'd seen came back to me. Everyone in this room right now had been in that place and whether they could remember it or not, I'd seen how they had died. I'd had to relive all of their deaths with them. Several of them had fallen at the hands of someone they considered a friend.

“That doesn't concern you. You're only here right now because I'd found you while searching for someone else. Now let go of my-” As I spoke, I reached out and grabbed Kurosaki's hand to pull him off of me. But the moment the palm of my right had touched his skin, it happened again. Once again, the memories flashed through my mind.

As soon as I had control again, I ripped my hand out of his grip. I didn't want to be here. Without even thinking about where I was going, I took off out the door. All I knew was that I had to get away. They'd never understand what had happened and I didn't want them to.


	19. You're Kidding Me

I didn't want to go to school today. I didn't want to face the people who thought they were my friends. The things I'd said to them yesterday had been quite harsh and it made me feel bad. So instead of going to school, I decided to walk around town.

As I did, I finally remembered to turn my cellphone back on. Even though I should have checked the hundred or so messages that I figured would be on there, I didn't even bother. There were too many other things on my mind, and each one was much more important.

After what had happened yesterday, I felt more alone than I ever had before. Even if fixing Sachiko's problem didn't make me disappear, there was still the issue with everyone who had been in Heavenly Host.

 _If only I could control it,_  I thought with a sigh. But controlling it wasn't an option when I didn't know what triggered it. If I could at least figure that out, it would be a step in the right direction.

The first time it was Yuka. She'd screamed at the sight of Kizami and I had merely reached out to calm her down. But she wasn't one of the people I'd brought back.

Then there was Kizami. But he had been intentional. Not to mention the times with him and Yuka had happened while Sachiko was still inside my body.

The first one that hadn't happened while I was connected to Sachi was Taguchi. I just attempted to shake his hand and it triggered some of his memories. After that, nothing happened until Ryosuke Katayama. But I had touched several of the people who had been in Heavenly Host between those two events without anything happening.

There was the time I'd fallen asleep on Fukuroi's shoulder when I was sick. And then before that Kai had put his arm around my shoulder. The time I was trying to mess with Fukuroi; when I rested my arm on Tomohiro's shoulder. Kurosaki dragging me into the student council room to talk to everyone. Those were all times when I'd been able to touch someone without anything happening.

 _There has to be some sort of connection here..._  The more I thought about it, the worse of a headache I got. Something had to trigger it, but what?

Then it hit me. When I'd tried to shake Taguchi's hand, I'd held out my right hand. When I'd grabbed Kizami's wrist, it was with my right hand. Touching Ryosuke's shoulder? Right hand. When I'd pulled Kurosaki's hand off my arm, you guessed it, I'd use my right hand. With all the others, it had been anything but that.

So now I had an idea of what triggered it. But I would still have to test it to be sure. Without giving me a second to think of a way to test this new theory, my phone began ringing.

Before I even had a chance to say a word, I heard the person on the other end begin speaking. “About time you answered your phone,” said a voice I knew better than any other.

“Sorry Sakutaro.” Apologizing wasn't something I did often, though sometimes it felt like half the time we spoke was spent by one of us apologizing to the other. I guess that was what friends do. Not that I really knew about that, since Mayu and Sakutaro were the only friends that I could really remember.

“I've been trying to contact you for months.” I flinched a little at the familiar, irritated tone he'd often used.

Had it been anyone other than him, I wouldn't have felt bad at all for leaving my phone alone for so long. “I didn't get my phone back until a month or two ago. Sachi had it.”

“Sachi?”

“Not important.” Even if some people knew she had helped me, few knew that I was practically friends with the ghost child. “So what's up?”

Like usual, he didn't question it and merely carried on with the reason he'd called me in the first place.“Well, we're planning on visiting Mayu this weekend and wanted to know if you wanted to come along.”

“Do you even have to ask? Of course I want to come along!” What possible reason would I ever have for not wanting to see my closest friends? “Where did she transfer to anyway?”

The answer he gave me was one that I definitely hadn't expected. “Byakudan Senior High School.”

“Please tell me that's a joke.”

“Why would I be joking?”

He wouldn't be joking. He was too serious to ever make any sort of joke. “So you mean to tell me that Mayu and I go to the same school and I am just now finding that out?”

“Mayu's at your school? Is she alright?” Even though his voice would have sounded perfectly normal to anyone else, I could hear just a tiny note of what I figured was excitement or surprise in his voice.

“I just told you I don't know. I didn't even know we were at the same school.”

My last words didn't really matter to him, which wasn't much of a shock. But his next words did surprise me. “Look after her for me, alright?” Even if I knew he cared for her, he never said anything that would make it so obvious as he just did.

“Yeah... Of course...”

All this time, she'd been right there without me even knowing... I don't think I've ever felt this stupid in my life.

 _Well, it's only around lunch time right now,_ I thought to myself, trying to decide just what I should do. If I really wanted to, I could get to the school and find Mayu. Though doing that would mean having to face my “friends,” which was an idea I wasn't all that fond of.  _Well Sayuri, what will you do now?_


	20. Help From A Friend

_I don't know why I'm doing this..._

Standing here outside the door of the classroom, I was just now beginning to question what I was doing. After talking with Sakutaro, I'd rushed all the way here. I'd even skipped having lunch

The moment I opened the door, I heard the teacher's voice greeting me. “Nice of you to join us, Miss Hoshikawa.” He seemed fairly annoyed. Can't say I blame him; he looked like he was in the middle of a lecture.

“Wouldn't want to miss seeing your beautiful face, my dear teacher,” I said playfully. For just a second, I swore he was fighting back an amused smile. Without another word, I sat down in my desk and waited for class to be done.

As soon as the day was over, I cornered the one who could tell me the one thing I wanted to know. “Hey Fukuroi, got a question for you,” I told him. I wasn't going to give him any chance to escape me. Not when it meant that I had a chance to see my friend. “You know every student in our year, right?”

He hesitated a moment before responding. Knowing him, he was running through all the possible reasons I could have for asking. “Yes... Why do you ask?”

“I want to know which class a friend of mine is in.” Apparently I'd said that a little too loudly. At the mention of the word “friend,” a couple people in the room gave me a questioning look. Looking closer, I realized that Tohko, Ryosuke, and Tomohiro had been there yesterday when I'd slipped up. Not only was I hiding things from them, but I'd pretty much told them that the would never be my friends. Well, maybe not exactly that, but with the way I'd acted? Yeah, I practically said it. Or at least implied it.

“Why don't you just ask them yourself?” Fukuroi sighed again.

“If I could do that, don't you think I would?”

“I don't understand why you-”

Before Fukuroi could even finish what he was trying to say, he was cut off by Kurosaki. “Since when do you think of anyone as your friend?” Apparently he was a bit irritated about yesterday still.

“Kurosaki-” Once again, Fukuroi was cut off before he could even begin.

“Why is it so important that you know where this person is?”

“This isn't any of your business, Kurosaki.” Even if I was usually a fairly calm person, it was growing increasingly difficult to hide my annoyance with him for butting into a matter that had nothing to do with him. “Mayu is a very important friend to me. If not for her, I probably wouldn't be here right now. Besides, Sakutaro made me promise to look after her and I  _never_ break a promise.”

“How do you even know she-”

“Suzumoto, right?” This time it was Fukuroi's turn to do the interrupting, effectively ending Kurosaki's attempt to argue with me.

“Yeah. You know where she is?” I asked. Once he told what I wanted to know, I immediately set out to find Mayu.  


	21. Reunion

After a little while, I finally found who I had been looking for.

“Mayu Suzumoto!” I called over to the girl sitting in the corner of the room with two other girls. While I made my way over, the trio looked up at me. One of them smiled, while the other two exchanged confused looks.

“Sayuri?”

As Mayu greeted me, the two with her looked even more confused. Thinking about it, I'd seen these two around here a lot, though I'd never known their names. “Um, you know her?”

“Sayuri has always been a close friend to me and Shi-” Before Mayu had a chance to finish, one of the girls jumped in.

“You mean that guy you've got a thing for?” the first girl asked. She looked me over, and I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't meant to be just a friendly look.

The other girl, having picked up on something that Mayu and I seemed to have missed, then stood up and made a circle around me.“You know, if she was so close with him, that makes her competition.”

This conversation had just taken a weird turn. As much as I liked him, I never considered him as anything more than a good friend. His heart belonged to Mayu and I wanted him to be with her more than anything.

“That reminds me,” I said, hoping to change the subject before these two gave Mayu any weird ideas. She came up with weird enough things on her own anyway. “I talked to him earlier.”

“You did?”

“He was annoyed that I hadn't been answering my phone and then he asked me to look out for you.”

From there I went on to explain everything he'd told me. After that we told each other what had happened since returning from Heavenly Host. However, I felt it best to leave out anything relating to Sachiko that Mayu didn't already know. No point in giving her any reason to worry, right?

“Has anyone been giving you any trouble?” I asked. Sakutaro wasn't the only one who had been worried about her. Even if I'd had too much on my mind to think much about my friends, somewhere in the back of my mind, I worried for them.

Mayu hesitated and looked away before answering me. “Not really...” She wasn't the type to lie, but I couldn't help but feel like there was something she wasn't saying. I quickly glanced over at her two friends.

The more talkative one seemed to pick up on my unasked question. “Shimada's been hitting on her a lot,” she said, sounding almost disgusted by it.

Shimada? Oh right, Kai. Hearing that he was hitting on her really didn't surprise me. From what I'd heard in my time here, Kai seemed to be a bit of a player. Assuming that all the rumors I'd heard were true anyway... “Does that bother you?”

“A little...” Mayu admitted.

“I'll do something about that for you,” I told her, making a mental note to have a little talk with him later on.

“Hey there, Suzumoto.” Speak of the devil...

The four of us turned to the source of the voice. Mayu looked uncomfortable

“Hey Kai!”

“What are you doing here, Bunny?”

“ _'Bunny'_?”

“I was just having a little talk with Mayu about her boyfriend back home.” Sakutaro may not actually be her boyfriend, but he was certainly close enough. Besides, saying that she had a boyfriend might make him back off. Turning to Mayu and her friends, I then answered their question. “Bunny is the name he's called me since we were kids.”

“Sounds like you two are pretty close,” said the first girl, whose name I learned was Nina. The other girl, Kanna, quickly picked up on what her friend was really meaning.

“Like boyfriend-girlfriend close.” And yet another weird turn in the conversation.

“No way in hell.” The way I said it sounded like I merely just politely saying  _no thank you_ to something offered to me. “Kai's a great guy and all, but I'm not interested in him like that.”

“Sayuri's never interested in anyone,” Mayu corrected me. Things were started to look like they were going to take another weird turn. Can't let that happen...

Better change the subject before things get said that I'd rather not have to whole world knowing. “Anyway, I was going to look for you.” Again, Kai was surprised.

“Why?”

I just smiled at him. “I was gonna see if you were up for a bit of fun.”

“Sayuri-”

Mayu's sentence was interrupted by her friend Nina. “I think his idea of 'fun' is a lot different than yours,” she said. My guess was that she was trying to making it look like she was looking out for me. But I was already well aware of how Kai was.

“I highly doubt that.”

Kai raised an eyebrow. “Didn't think you were that kinda girl, Bunny.”

Before I was able to say anything, Mayu started to speak. “Sayuri's al-” She was quickly cut off by my hand covering her mouth. The people here already had a bad enough impression of me; the last thing I needed was for it be even worse.

“Mayu, if you're about to say what I think you're going to, don't.” My voice was calm, and maybe a little bit threatening, When she nodded, I slowly moved my hand away. “Anyway, what do you say, Kai?”

Once he'd accepted my offer, the two of us left Mayu and her somewhat annoying friends. To be honest, I'd rather be back in Heavenly Host that deal with those two again.

“Oh yeah,” I said, suddenly remembering what I was thinking of before I'd spoken to Sakutaro. My theory on the flashbacks... Turning to my friend, I asked him for his assistance. If necessary, I was sure I could bribe him into helping. “Care to help me with a little experiment as well?”


	22. Don't Do That!

When the day came for the others to visit Mayu, I reminded myself to be careful. Every one of them had been in Heavenly Host, so there was a chance that I could trigger their memories. That was always unpleasant for me, so I couldn't imagine how much worse it was for the one who had actually lived those memories.

Luckily, I'd been able to figure out how I trigger the flashbacks. With Kai's help, my experiment had been a success. So long as I avoided touching anyone with my right palm, I shouldn't trigger anything. At least, that was what I hoped.

As everyone was busy attacking Mayu with questions, I stood back and watched. I hadn't really been that close to any of them besides Sakutaro, but I felt happy to see them.

“So this is why you said you were busy,” said a voice from behind me. Turning around, I found myself face-to-face with Kai. He'd asked me to meet up with him today as a reward for helping me test my little theory about the flashbacks, but I had to refuse. “Friends of yours, Bunny?”

I laughed a little. Thinking about it now, Kai hadn't been around when I'd had those two little 'discussions' with Kurosaki. “Not quite. More like they're Mayu's friends.”

“'Bunny?'” Sakutaro asked, having noticed Kai's sudden appearance before the others.

Before either of us had a chance to answer, another voice joined in. “It's a nickname he used when they were kids,” Kurosaki's voice said. It shouldn't have been a surprise that he had shown up. I mean, we were out at some little park near Mayu's home, so it's not like he'd randomly appeared in her house or something. “I'm surprised she even calls you her friends. After all, she- Ow!”

Kurosaki was quickly shut up by Mitsuki hitting him in the back of the head. “If you are just going to be a jerk, then just go home.” He quietly looked down at the ground. “Sorry, Fukuroi sort of mentioned seeing you here with your old friends and Kurosaki's still a little annoyed about your argument. I figured I should stop him before he caused any trouble.”

“Argument?” Sakutaro raised an eyebrow. “You don't argue with anyone.”

With a sigh, I briefly explained. “I may have said something that I wasn't supposed to and Kurosaki may have gotten mad when I would explain it and then I sort of told him and everyone else that they would never be my friends.” As I spoke, my voice was calm. Almost too calm, really. Before anyone could ask anything more about it, I quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, this is Satoshi and Yuka Mochida, Naomi Nakashima, Seiko Shinohara, Mayu Suzumoto, Sakutaro Morishige, Ayumi Shinozaki, and Yoshiki Kishinuma.”

As I introduced everyone, there appeared to be a spark in Kurosaki's eyes and a mischievous grin on his face. “Yoshiki... Hey, wasn't that the name of-” He was instantly cut off as I panicked and placed my hand on him to stop him from finishing that sentence. As expected, the flashback of his death was triggered. When it was over, he swore as he backed away from me.

“Think before you speak,” I warned. Thanks to Kai's help, I'd gotten almost used to the flashbacks. Of course, that had been hell for Kai. But lucky for him, it wouldn't affect him as much as it would Kurosaki.

“So he is that guy you said you-” Placing my hand on him again, I trigger the same memories again. Once more, he swore at me and gave me an angry look. “Quit doing that!”

Kai laughed, knowing exactly how he felt. The others around us, however were quite confused. “Sayuri? What did you do to him?” Sakutaro asked, though he didn't really want to know the answer.

Kai and I laughed. “You don't want to know.”


End file.
